1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording medium for recording a program information in its program area as well as an information inherent to the medium and an information related to the program, and to a reproduction apparatus and method for reproducing from this recording medium the program information, the information inherent to the medium, and the program-related information.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, there is a type of compact disc (CD) called CD-text capable of recording a text information such as a disc title and genre information in alphanumerics and Kanzi (Chinese characters) together with a music information. This CD-text is disclosed, for example by U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,731 filed on Nov. 27, 1996 by the applicant of this invention. This CD-text can record one genre information for a disc but cannot record a genre information for the respective tracks.
There is now a desire for recording a genre information for each of the tracks because the genre information is substantially an information belonging to a track. Moreover, if a track contains a plurality of genres, it is preferable to record the plurality of genres, but only one of them can be recorded at a time. The user may forget music information of the other genres. Moreover, it has been impossible to record genre information for an album consisting of a plurality of discs. For example, there has been no way to cope with a disc such as an omnibus album containing a plurality of genres and a plurality of artists.
Furthermore, music genres such as classical and jazz originally depend on the cultural areas such as the country and region, and some genres uniquely belong to specific countries. For example, Japan has a music genre called Enka, popular ballads sung by street singers. Furthermore, each country has its folk music. However, there has been no discs to cope with a collection of different countries having different genres.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium capable of recording a program-related information for an information recorded on each of the tracks and a disc-related information inherent to a recording medium such as a disc as well as a representative information when a recording content is recorded over a plurality of recording media.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a reproduction apparatus and method, enabling to perform various types of retrieval using the aforementioned information items when reproducing the aforementioned recording medium.
The recording medium according to the present invention includes: a first management region containing a representative information for representing a plurality of recording media on which a recording content are to be recorded, and a medium-specific information inherent to the respective recording media; a second management region containing a program-related information related to respective programs to be recorded on the recording medium; and a program region containing the programs. This enables to effectively record layered information items.
Here, the representative information is one selected from a group consisting of an album title, a total number of sets, a musician name, a genre name, and a product identification number. Moreover, the representative information can contain a plurality of genre names. Moreover, the genre names can be loaded by specifying a genre table and specifying a genre index.
Moreover, the medium-specific information is one selected from a group consisting of a disc title, a musician name, a serial number, a genre name, a recording date, and a recording author. Moreover, the medium-specific information can contain a plurality of genre names. Moreover, the genre names can be loaded by specifying a genre table and specifying a genre index.
Moreover, the program-related information is one selected from a group consisting of a program title, a musician name, a words author, a music composer, an arranger, a message, a genre name, and an International Standard Recording Code (ISRC). Moreover, the program-related information can contain a plurality of genre names, which can be loaded by specifying a genre table and specifying a genre index.
The reproduction apparatus according to the present invention is for reproducing an information from a recording medium having: a first management region containing a representative information for representing a plurality of recording media on which a recording content are to be recorded, and a medium-specific information inherent to the respective recording media; a second management region containing a program-related information related to respective programs to be recorded on the recording medium; and a program region containing the programs, the apparatus including: reproduction means for reproducing the representative information and the medium-specific information recorded in the first management region and the program-related information recorded in the second management region; storage means for storing the representative information and the medium-specific information recorded in the first management region and the program-related information recorded in the second management region; and display means for selectively displaying the representative information, the medium-specific information, and the program-related information.
Accordingly, the user can perform various types of retrieval and reproduction watching the display means.
Moreover, the reproduction method according to the present invention is for reproducing an information from a recording medium having: a first management region containing a representative information for representing a plurality of recording media on which a recording content are to be recorded, and a medium-specific information inherent to the respective recording media; a second management region containing a program-related information related to respective programs to be recorded on the recording medium; and a program region containing the programs, the method including steps of: reproducing the representative information and the medium-specific information recorded in the first management region and storing the representative information and the medium-specific information recorded in the first management region which has been reproduced; reproducing the program-related information recorded in the second management region and storing the program-related information recorded in the second management region which has been reproduced; and selectively displaying the representative information, the medium-specific information, and the program-related information.